Secret Meetings
by ickybicky
Summary: Gwen realizes how much she misses Courtney [GwenxCourtney] SLASH


Gwen couldn't really pinpoint when She and Courtney started their relationship.

Things were going..._ok_ with Duncan although the initial thrill of being in a relationship with him was starting to wear off. They didn't fight or anything, but they were starting to make out less and less. Things were just cooling off and Gwen wasn't too anxious about the decrease in passion after the way her relationship with Trent turned out. Normal was better than crazy. Normal was _good_.

But it did give her a lot of time to think.

She had started to miss Courtney. Duncan shared a lot of her morbid interests, but with Courtney, she could really geek out on history. She had been surprised at Courtney's knowledge of tragic queens, their scandals and their romances. Duncan liked some of the gothic stuff too, but he seemed more fixated on just the executions.

And nothing could beat her memories of having an ally against Heather. While Duncan tried to stay out of her conflict with the queen bee, Courtney seemed to revel in the idea of taking her down with Gwen.

Whenever she talked to Duncan, she started mentally comparing him to Courtney. At first, she tried her best to avoid it, but it became more and more clear that she just couldn't forget her lost friendship.

She had to try to fix things with Courtney.

Things were frosty as could be expected, but at least the other girl had lost some of the violent anger she had during world tour. She didn't even look at Duncan anymore, but she would still flash Gwen looks of hatred.

Gwen would wave to her. Courtney would scoff back. She would offer Courtney her rice, which was the only edible food in Chef's menu, but she just flipped over her tray without looking at her.

Gwen even went as far as complimenting Courtney's shoes, which only resulted in a strange look. Yeah, that wasn't in character, but Gwen was desperate. Besides, the strange look was an upgrade from a glare.

It wasn't like Courtney had been so perfect, Gwen knew. She had gone bonkers during world tour, but the need to sew things up with Courtney was becoming an obsession with Gwen.

And she was a strong believer in karma.

She redoubled her efforts, which started to get on Duncan's nerves. She was spending less time with him. She waved him off, saying that her efforts were for the both of them, since winning over Courtney would mean one less enemy for Duncan.

Honestly, she didn't really care about that.

After what was probably the hundredth time of asking Courtney if they could just talk, Courtney finally snapped.

"FINE! OKAY! YOU WIN!"

Courtney's rage had come back, and for a moment, Gwen feared for her safety as Courtney pulled her through the woods. Fortunately, none of the camera men had caught her outburst.

Scott and Duncan were trying to one-up each other, so everyone was focused on them.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked, wondering if she had maybe overdone things. Maybe she had been stalking Courtney a bit too much...

Courtney ignored her until they reached their destination. She pushed her against a tree. "This is a blind spot."

"How did you know about-?"

Courtney glared and Gwen knew the answer. Of course. Duncan. It was probably one of their make out spots.

"Nevermind." she mumbled quickly.

Courtney just rolled her eyes, and waved away the tension.

"You wanted to talk? So talk."

"Um.." Gwen chuckled, not knowing what to say. It would have been lame to just say, H_ey, I want to be friends again_.

Courtney rolled her eyes again and leaned against the same tree. "So basically, you've been bothering me for no reason."

"No! I just thought we should have an alliance."

"We're on different teams. You probably wouldn't last to merge since you're in a team with Alejandro, Heather and..."

"We can have a future alliance! Just in case. We don't have to be enemies."

Courtney raised an eyebrow, but didn't respond.

"Come on, Courtney! We had good times."

"-And bad times!" the girl shot back.

"-And I'm sorry about that!"

Courtney pouted at Gwen's outburst. "Some apology."

"I'm not apologizing!"

Courtney started to walk away. "Then I don't know why I'm listening-"

Gwen grabbed her arm, pride surging up.

"Well, you should apologize too!"

"What!" the other girl spat out. "No way!"

"Then nobody is apologizing." Gwen stated, leaving no room for argument.

"Fine! Can I go now?" Courtney tried to shake Gwen's hand away, but the goth wouldn't let go.

"We're not going to hate each other."

Courtney looked away, her face losing some of it's hardness.

"I mean...don't you hate it?" Gwen asked softly.

Courtney didn't respond.

"We made a pretty good team. Didn't we?"

Courtney tried to look away.

"We probably could have kicked Heather's butt." Gwen added.

The CIT let out a small chuckle.

"She wouldn't have stood a chance." she whispered.

Courtney looked up at Gwen and smiled. The goth could feel her cheeks turning warm.

"Okay." Courtney decided, pulling her wrist free from Gwen's grip, causing her to feel a small bit of disappointment. "I'll let you have a trial _secret_ alliance." She grabbed Gwen's hand. "Let's go back. Maybe I can watch Duncan make a fool out of himself."

Gwen laughed. Duncan was her boyfriend, but sometimes his attempts to look badass annoyed her a little.

They continued their secret "alliance." They didn't call it friendship, but it was obvious that their secret meetings weren't so much about passing along information and were more about joking around and getting to know each other better.

They had even more things in common. Neither had a lot of friends back home. Gwen was a loner and Courtney was an_over_involved A type that scared away friendships.

As time passed, the tension between them dissipated entirely. They insulted each other in public for appearance sake, but even the insults seemed more jokey and Courtney couldn't seem to glare at her anymore with any sort of real animosity.

She started to see Duncan less and less. He seemed more involved in the game. He, Lightning, Scott and Alejandro were always fighting one way or another so her boyfriend didn't seem to notice the growing distance between them.

Courtney never mentioned her relationship with Duncan, which was a relief and a little bit of a disappointment. There's no way Courtney wouldn't notice her and Duncan's growing distance. Wasn't she relieved? And why wasn't _she_concerned about her own relationship with Duncan. Whenever she thought about the possibility, it was accompanied with relief that the whole love triangle debacle would be resolved and put to rest.

Merge came and went. They still kept their friendship secret. Most of the heroes team had been eliminated. Sierra was the only one left with Courtney, and she could tell that the two were in some sort of alliance.

Courtney spent more time courting alliances with others, which meant less time for their meetings, which Gwen was _fine_with. Really. Totally okay.

But then, she saw Courtney cooing over Lightning's muscles like an idiot, which Gwen knew she wasn't. Sure, that was the only way to get on the dimwitted athlete's good side, but she was leading him on.

And Courtney was so much better than that. Lightning had muscles, but Courtney was probably...no she _was_ the prettiest girl on the island.

And Lightning could never appreciate her wit.

That night, Gwen practically dragged Courtney to their secret meeting spot.

"You and lighting?" she practically shouted.

"It's just an alliance. He's strong in challenges, so he's actually useful. Why are you so angry. This is helping _you_ too."

"When you talked to him, you weren't _you_."

Courtney...sorta blushed and Gwen leaned against the tree. It seemed like an intimate confession.

"It's nothing, Gwen." Courtney reassured her. "He's just elimination fodder when the alliance starts getting smaller. You're...my number one alliance."

Normally, Gwen would have bee suspicious of such a confession, but Courtney looked so sincere.

She had never seen her look so open and honest...and _cute_.

Now it was her turn to blush.

"I'll probably break up with Duncan soon." Her throat tightened. What caused her to blurt _that_ out so suddenly?

She thought Courtney would have said something stuck up about Duncan or maybe she would celebrate.

Instead, she was silent, her face turning even redder. She didn't have to ask _why_. It was obvious...she and Duncan weren't working out and Courtney was...

"_Why_..." Courtney asked haltingly after a long pause. "Are you telling me before you tell him?"

Gwen knew. She was sure Courtney knew, but she still needed to ask anyways.

"Because..." she whispered, her body seeming to act on it's own. She shuddered as she leaned forward and brushed her lips over Courtney's.

Her heart was beating a mile a minute. If Courtney pulled away...

But she didn't.

It was a lot different from kissing Duncan, whose lips were dry and cracked and smelled like perspiration. Courtney's kiss smelled like peaches, and her lips were soft and full.

The normally confident CIT's arms wrapped haltingly around Gwen and she was kissing her back.

Even while it was happening, Gwen couldn't believe it. It felt right.

After the kiss was done, Courtney ran off, without explanation, but the look she shot back at Gwen showed her that it wasn't a rejection.

They didn't talk about the kiss for awhile. Courtney seemed a little skittish, but after two days, the CIT brought Gwen to their meeting place and initiated a kiss of her own.

They didn't label it. Whatever they were doing. Gwen broke up with Duncan, which didn't really create much conflict as they both knew it was coming anyways.

But if Duncan found out about her and Courtney, there probably would have been a huge conflict bigger than their love triangle in total drama world tour. Courtney would probably take the brunt of it. Everyone would probably assume that Courtney got between them in purpose when it wasn't about her at all.

Courtney was surprisingly playful during their make out sessions. Even as a...couple or friends with benefits or whatever they were, she still talked about alliances, but she seemed more fiercely protective of Gwen.

They were more open about their friendship now. Everyone assumed that it was because she and Duncan were broken up. The punk seemed a little hesitant when Courtney hung around. At first, it seemed like he though that Gwen hated him now and that she and Courtney were plotting against him.

It took awhile for Gwen to convince Courtney to bring Duncan to the final three with them. After all, Duncan was still her friend.

Courtney pouted at the suggestion, but she eventually relented. There were only five people left anyways so the alliance was going to be a short one anyways.

Their make out sessions started to slow down in intensity, but that was because they were starting to talk about what they were doing.

Gwen wasn't worried about her family's reaction. Her mom and brother had no problem with these kind of things, but sometimes Courtney just seemed wound up so tight about being discovered.

But that didn't stop her from talking about the future and how they would meet after the show even though they lived in different towns.

That was when Gwen had realized that whatever they were doing had morphed into a relationship. While things with Trent and Duncan felt claustrophobic when she thought about the "R" word with them, she found herself discussing her future with Courtney with more enthusiasm every day.

However, as they started to get in deep with their talks, they were spending more and more time away from camp.

Maybe that was how Chris had noticed.

Their secret meetings.

Courtney was the one who found out. She had tricked lightning into starting a fight with Duncan, and used them to evade the cameras while she pulled Gwen over to talk.

She was pacing and shaking, and trying not to cry at the same time.

"What's wrong?" she asked

"I'm going to _kill_ him!" Courtney suddenly shouted, gritting her teeth. "He can't do this!"

"Do what? _Who _are you going to kill?"

Courtney looked at her with hollow eyes.

"**_Chris_**! He got a picture of us making out! He took it with his own camera. I went to take some snacks to convince Scott to vote for Lightning when I heard him talking to Chef."

Gwen mumbled a curse. She didn't mind her family finding out...but she didn't want everything between her and Courtney being broadcasted to the whole country.

Courtney's eyes filled with tears. "He said he was going to sell the pictures to men's magazines and that he already got some high offers."

Gwen gritted her teeth. Those types of magazines would probably just look at their relationship as "girl on girl action."

Gwen hugged Courtney. "What will happen to our future?" the CIT whispered.

Oh shit. If they were featured in _those_ types of magazines, then their college prospects would take a hit on top of everything else. Even her mother wouldn't be okay with that.

"We'll destroy the pictures. Did you see where he kept his camera and the footage?"

Courtney nodded, looking a little green. "But he's copied it and backed it up already."

"Did he choose who to sell it to yet?"

Courtney shook his head.

"He told Chef he would wait a week.

Gwen sighed. "So we have options. I'm sure your lawyers have told you the rules to public relations..."

Courtney grinned as she went into CIT mode.

"You can either kill a story or control it." She said.

Gwen nodded, sitting down at the base of the tree by their blind spot. Courtney slid down next to her.

"I know we haven't talked about...being open before" Gwen ran a hand through her own hair. Was Courtney going to freak again at this line of questioning?

The other girl hugged her knees to her chest while biting her lip.

"I guess if we're going to be together...I don't want to hide it." she said after much thought.

"So you don't want to break up?" Gwen asked, daring to hope. It didn't seem like Courtney had any regrets. But maybe she did. If she broke up, maybe they could dismiss Chris' pictures as fakes.

Courtney snorted in an undignified manner. "_That_ was never on the table!"

"What do you want to do then?"

"We'll take our own pictures and sell them to women's magazines! Chris won't get a dime because it will be old news and it would be pretty tacky if we opened up to nicer magazines! We can get a lot of money too!"

Courtney jumped up, her spirit regained. The prospect of getting money while defying Chris would have perked anyone up.

"I can't wait to break into Chris' cabin. Let's do it tonight!"

When Courtney got like this, there was no stopping her. It was going to be a little daring, but Chris's cabin was the only one that had internet.

* * *

Chris grinned to himself as he thought about the offers for the Gwen and Courtney pictures that came last night.

Thanks to his agents negotiations, the offers were getting higher and higher. He was even able to play off the magazines off each other.

He let out a cheshire cat grin as he checked his email. There would probably be more offers in his inbox. He opened it and saw that nothing had come in yet.

Strange.

There was an email from his agent. Maybe they were sending them to her now?

He clicked on it, and his face grew pale.

It was a picture of Gwen and Courtney on the cover of some women's magazine, holding hands.

"No..." he rasped.

An exclusive interview and photo spread had already been sold...

And all the offers for his photos had been rescinded.

He heard giggling, and his blood boiled as he ran outside.

Gwen and Courtney were smiling at each other and hugging.

"How much money did we get for our pics, Gwen?"

"Oh, about 50,000 dollars." Gwen responded with fake cheer.

Chris whimpered at the lost money.

"Oh, hi, Chis. I didn't see you." Courtney said in a "fake" voice.

"I'll tell everyone about your magazine spread!"

"But that's against your contract, Chris! My lawyers went over it. You're not supposed to tell us about what's going on outside."

"I can tell the others you're dating. You two just lost yourself a ton of money!"

Courtney shrugged. "We can just deny it. You don't have proof. You aren't allowed to take personal photos on set, right? If the others find out after the show, it won't matter, because one of us would have won by now."

Chris glared. "You little-!"

"I wouldn't finish that thought if I were you, unless you _want_ Courtney's lawyer's ripping you limb from limb."

Chris' lower lip seemed to tremble before he glared, and walked away in a huff.

Chef looked on. As Chris slammed the door to his cabin, Chef grinned and gave Gwen and Courtney a quick thumbs up.

As everything calmed down, Courtney sighed in relief.

"Are you going to be okay...with us being public when the show is over?" Gwen asked, fiddling with her hands.

Courtney grabbed Gwen's hands, giving the other girl a sweet smile.

"Yeah. I'll be okay. And if they have a problem with it, they better not mention it to me! I was a CIT, so I think I have pretty good judgement."

Gwen moved to kiss her on the cheek, but Courtney stopped her.

"I know another make out spot."

"I hope this one is further from the outhouse." Gwen quipped.

"Let's hurry before Chris sends someone to follow us with a camera."

Courtney walked into the woods again and Gwen looked back to see that they weren't being followed.

"Hurry up, Gwen! Courtney called. "I can't make out by myself!"

"That'd be an interesting sight!" Gwen laughed, running after her.


End file.
